| NSF Org: |
DUE Division Of Undergraduate Education |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | May 9, 2018 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | May 9, 2018 |
| Award Number: | 1801182 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Virginia Carter
DUE Division Of Undergraduate Education EDU Directorate for STEM Education |
| Start Date: | July 1, 2018 |
| End Date: | June 30, 2022 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $537,310.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $537,310.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
4000 E 30TH AVE EUGENE OR US 97405-0640 (541)463-5853 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
4000 East 30th Avenue Eugene OR US 97405-0640 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Advanced Tech Education Prog |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.076 |
ABSTRACT
The need for a skilled workforce in water conservation technology is vital to regional and national economies and to a growing population facing rising water rates in the future. Industry partnerships will help advance a new type of shared technical education in water conservation. In this new model, colleges and industry will share the responsibility of educating America's technician workforce. Currently, few complete Water Conservation Technician programs exist in the United States. Lane Community College's (LCC) Water Advanced Technological Education Resource for Individuals (WATER-I) Program aims to address this need for a Water Conservation Technician workforce. The program will be designed to increase access to Water Conservation Technician education for more diverse community-college populations. The WATER-I model will use a blended-learning delivery method to expand Water Conservation Technician education to students across the western US, with the potential to expand across the nation. Students will take LCC's coursework online and complete their course fieldwork with an LCC-trained utility mentor at their local utility. Regional utilities and utility professional associations have agreed to provide employee-mentors for this project.
WATER-I leverages an on-line content delivery approach to reach a broader range of students than currently served by LCC's Water Conservation Technician program. WATER-I expands online curriculum to students in rural areas and to other nontraditional students. The program is motivated by 1) the high demand for a Water Conservation Technician workforce by industry and consumers; 2) the need for an education method to reach broader student populations, and 3) LCC's expertise in both Water Conservation Technician programs and in delivering quality programs outside traditional classroom settings. To widen WATER-I's geographic focus, WATER-I staff will transfer the didactic elements into an online environment and develop fieldwork experiences through regional water utilities; these fieldwork experiences are similar to internships or cooperative education. With this model of higher education/ industry partnership, students can receive Water Conservation Technicians training, regardless of geography or other limitations to participating in a solely face-to-face program. Multiple postsecondary institutions, water utilities, and water professional associations have partnered with LCC to develop WATER-I. The project has the potential to develop a mechanism for students across the country to access a high-quality water conservation program and career.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Lane Community College's (LCC) Water Conservation Technician program leverages two past relevant NSF projects in terms of their content delivery. Both NSF grants – LANES1 and ILEED2 –provided educational opportunities in energy efficiency for students throughout the country.
Lane Community College is located in Eugene, Oregon.
Lane Community College has been in a unique position to transfer its lessons learned and strategies from LANES and ILEED to its Water Conservation Technician (WCT) program. LCC’s Water Advanced Technological Education Resource for Individuals (WATER-I) provided an online WCT program analogous to ILEED for independent learners. Partnerships with western region public water utilities have provided fieldwork mentors for the courses, giving students the practical experience they need to enter this technical career pathway and opportunities to network in their communities. This method allows students to get to know the specific challenges in their communities as well as allowing the utility employers to work with potential new employees.
Some of the specific challenges and opportunities are as follows:
- Adapt class led activities and instruction to the individualized learner model
- Identify fieldwork assignments essential to the learning outcomes
- Establish student evaluation methods for individual remote assignments.
- Create mentor protocols and support materials
- Develop a dissemination plan with water organizations including American Water Works Association (AWWA), The Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE) and the California Water Efficiency Partnership (CalWEP).
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
WATER-I’s education method can have a broad impact. The WATER-I model will expand water conservation education to students across Western US and then the United States – regardless of one’s proximity to a community college – through a well-organized, supported blended-learning delivery method with public water utilities serving as the provider of the fieldwork portion of a course.
Students can and have taken LCC’s coursework online and complete their fieldwork requirements at their local water utility with an LCC-trained utility employee-mentor. Regional utilities and utilities’ professional associations agreed to provide employee-mentors for this project. For each course, LCC’s mentor instruction and mandatory ongoing connection with faculty will ensure high-quality, consistent field experience for students. This educational delivery method is like internship / cooperative education programs at colleges across the nation – a system in which students earn credit toward their degree while housed in public / private agencies, businesses, and nonprofits. Because students work with actual water utility programs, they receive excellent hands- on experiences equal to, or better than, they would receive in a college laboratory environment.
WATER-I supports both traditional and nontraditional students. Students have access to online education and can flex their schedules around the classwork.
WATER-I’s teaching model can help reduce the demand for water professionals by removing geographic limitations of bricks-and-mortar higher education. Water utilities are found in every town and city in the country, as are Internet connections for online learning. The combination of these two conditions creates the potential to train a large number and wide spectrum of students.
This model has been successful and can assist as a model of what can be successful and how online learning can utilized in career technical degree programs.
Last Modified: 07/11/2022
Modified by: Roger Ebbage
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